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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

EMBARRASSING, UNDIGNIFIED COUNCIL SCRAP OVER WAR HERO.

March 27 Th. 08 full council going through business quitely when suddenly, a huge row breaks out over an item which should have been non contentious.

On Sept. 2Nd. 19 18 Hugh McIvor died in France at the age of 28, a casualty of the 'war to end wars' - if only.He came from Linwood and he was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery in action, a hero in other words.

Renfrewshire decided to mark the 90Th. anniversary of this man's death by attending the memorial service in France and this is where this business started to go wrong, for reasons best known to themselves it was decided that Renfrewshire would be represented by the Chief Executive, The Provost and the Council Leader.

A suggestion to include the opposition leader was turned down and argument followed, my own opinion with no disrespect to anyone is that 3 representatives was 2 too many, the Provost alone would have been appropriate.

It then descended into the mire when Cllr. Hall (Labour) expressed concern and informed the meeting that relatives of Hugh McIvor would be attending, Cllr. Hall said that she was worried that this could be construed as a 'junket' by some people when they observed that 2 Councillors and a council official would be going all expenses paid while the V.C. holder's family would be obliged to pay their own way.

This led to outrageous accusations from the SNP who immediately started to accuse Cllr. Hall of calling it a 'junket' which she did not do, the most vociferous of the accusers predictably was Cllr. McFee (SNP) a man with a reputation of never being able to see a belt without trying to hit below it, his opportunism was a sickening sight, some present were reminded of how he turned a valedictory speech for the late Brian Oldrey into an attack on the Labour Party, which, left some of his SNP colleagues at the time staring at the floor in embarrassment.

The dust has settled and I can only hope that the family concerned are not hurt by this row, hopefully they will remain unaware of it.I hope that their trip to France brings great comfort to them and I hope that Renfrewshire Council learn from this.

The solution ? easy, Provost Lawson and 2 family members should have made up the visiting party, Cllrs. and officials should have been kept to a minimum, I sincerely hope that lessons have been learned by everyone through this fiasco.

I am going to agree with you here. The figure head of the authority should go, the CE is a bureaucrat and has no place, the leader of the council is just a politician and so would the leader of the opposition. Even then having the head of SNP and Labour would then probably lead to calls for a senior Lib Dem and Langlands for the Tories to attend as well.

I am off to open my really good reference book with every VC gazette in it to remind myself of what he had done.

You think 3 pople is too many , why then did the labour ammendment ask for all 4 political parties to be represented??? The family have already made their own travel arrangements as they are travelling from elsewhere as they don't live in Renfrewshire. As for hoping the family don't find out about the row, why post about it in the first place!!!!!!

That’s a lie, Labour Cllrs. Were present at the Abbey. That’s why they were able to tell us about the deplorable lack of respect and disdain shown by some SNP representatives who talked and laughed throughout the ceremony.

Labour did say that we would go along with the Provost only I.e. if the administration had agreed to that we would have removed the amendment. The administration were made to look awful by insisting on two SNP and an officer.

I did say that no-one came out of this blameless but the administration could have avoided this with a bit more thought / experience. Did no one among them see the potential for trouble here.

Either the leader of the administration or the Provost should have attended only.

For Labour to request that this be increased to 4 representatives is stupidity upon stupidity.

Like others, I must question your motives for publishing this at all.

It would appear to be a cheap jibe at your opposition as opposed to a comment of sincerity.

For the record, I am a member of the Conservative Party and I have no wish to enter into the infantile type of exchanges that I have seen recently between your party and the current SNP/Lib Dem administration.

I did feel that I had to comment on this as I don't believe that any of your sentiments or intentions are really in the interests of the family, otherwise you would not have used this as a cheap pop at your opponents.

No rage at all, and certainly not the disgraceful and disgusting faux outrage you show. You are using a mans death in WW1, and the feelings of that mans family, allegedly, to try and build a case against a political opponent.

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I represent Ward 4 Paisley North West. I'm a Socialist who believes in equality, peace and the redistribution of wealth, I opposeRacism, Sexism, Sectarianism, Nationalism and any kind of discrimination. Best wishes for a Socialist future.What appears on this website are my personal views and opinions. Not those of the Labour Party, Renfrewshire Council or anyone else, mine only.

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